Working on paper - markup conventions (to indicate 'priority')

Ship69

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Hello

This is how I mark up the 'priority' of my tasks when I am working on paper. I find my system helpful but it also needs improvement(!)

Here's what I do:

1. I write each next action onto a piece of paper that corresponding to it's Context.
[And as discussed here an action is extremely urgent I may add the text onto a separate list on a separate sheet of paper called Urgent, but I try hard not to have too many of these.]

2. Either immediately or when I revisit it, if I feel it really needs to be done today, then I draw a small square (like a tickbox) at the start if its line.

3. I have a pen that clips into the spiral hinge on my notebook. This pen has a built-in red AND black ink. So if the action is urgent, I then fill in the square with red ink. (or maybe underline it in red ink?)

[Benefit: This allows me to quickly scan the page without reading anything, looking for any red ink!]

4. When the task is completed I tick the box, and in order to avoid re-reading things, I also heavily cross that task out. And I make sure I over-write ALL the red ink at this point, so as to make sure that next time I scan the page looking for red, that no red is visible for any completed tasks.

5. If I have lots of squares with red on them, I can mark up individual actions as being "super-urgent" by drawing a black circle around the square.

Problems:
What becomes more difficult is how to manage changes in priority using pen and paper.
e.g. To take an extreme example: suppose a task
starts urgent ==> then becomes not urgent ==> then urgent again ==> then not urgent ==> then urgent again...

How then does one mark this up using ink (without resorting to Typex, which often won't be available) at each stage?
 

Oogiem

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This is how I mark up the 'priority' of my tasks when I am working on paper. I find my system helpful but it also needs improvement(!)

It still seems like you are trying to do a typical system with defined priorities. I'd drop the attempt to track priorities entirely. If it's day specific put it on your calendar, all else should be sorted just by context. You've already stated you need a small number of things on your lists so you are using Someday/maybe to keep the amount you have to read down so why complicate it further by adding priority on hard copy?

Just review your short list of stuff to do and decide on the fly what is the priority.

You really can do it and don't need the crutch of the details you are trying to put into the system.

What you are describing seems like it takes more effort to keep current than you gain by using it.
 

bcmyers2112

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It seems like you're trying to combine GTD with traditional time-management methods and ending up with the worst of both worlds. In my experience, the only way GTD's methodology of getting everything out of your head and into a reviewable format really works is if your system is the simplest and most streamlined you can make it. What you've described sounds overly complex and unwieldy.

This may be blasphemy in this forum, but given your self-described dyslexia I question whether GTD is right for you. I'm no dyslexia expert but having listened to a lengthy piece about it on NPR gave me a better understanding of how difficult reading is for someone dyslexic. It strikes me that a productivity system that relies on lots of lists may not be appropriate for someone for whom reading is such a challenge.

The problem is that you're asking people in this forum who have no expertise with dyslexia to provide input. If I were you, I'd seek out a qualified professional with expertise in helping people with dyslexia and ask them for help with organization.

You've been posting in this forum for over a year if my recollection is correct, describing how you've been trying and abandoning productivity tool after productivity tool in hopes of finding the solution for your challenges. It's been said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting a different result. I don't think that's truly a definition of insanity -- if it were, we'd all be insane because everyone falls prey to this folly at least occasionally -- but I do think it is the definition of futility.

I realize you don't like my advice, but at one time I was you. I know the pain and the lost opportunities that can result from an addiction to what I've heard aptly termed "productivity porn." For what it's worth I think you have the potential to do and be more than this, and I hope someday you'll consider getting off this treadmill you've put yourself on for your own sake.
 

Ship69

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I'd drop the attempt to track priorities entirely. If it's day specific put it on your calendar, all else should be sorted just by context. You've already stated you need a small number of things on your lists so you are using Someday/maybe to keep the amount you have to read down so why complicate it further by adding priority on hard copy?

No, what you are describing simply isn't my real world. On a busy day, it is mission-critical that I execute those really high priority tasks. These tasks absolutely MUST be done today. I simply do not have the luxury of executing them tomorrow. This gets worse of course when I am on the road, in a new location. And I need some method of drawing them to my attention and absolutely NONE of these critical actions are allowed to fall through the cracks.

These actions may get entered on one day and then become mission-critical later. Yes, I try hard to keep the list of really important/urgent tasks as short as possible, but there maybe 5 or 10 during one day. With a good markup convention, adding priority on hard copy is trivial and only takes about 1 or 2 seconds.

To recap, on certain days it really is a total disaster if certain things are NOT completed on that day, and I absolutely MUST have a way to capture this.

The diary is used for unmovable/external appointments, and things that I need to look at on that day (Tickler system). On paper lists, I may of course have the same task written down in more than one place. And when this happens I find it helpful to mark it up in both places as being very high priority.

Yes there are other times where one has "discretionary time" and under those circumstances, simply listing at once all the things that you need to do "as soon as possible" and choosing intuitively between them works just fine.
 

bcmyers2112

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No, what you are describing simply isn't my real world. On a busy day, it is mission-critical that I execute those really high priority tasks. These tasks absolutely MUST be done today.

If it has to be done today, the standard GTD advice is to put it in your calendar. But you've stated that some of these tasks have changing urgency. The standard GTD advice is to simply list those by context and not attempt to hard-code their urgency.

Again, I think you're trying to fit a square peg into a round hole by marrying GTD with traditional time management. More important, I don't think you're going to find what you need by fiddling with lists and productivity widgets.
 

Ship69

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If it has to be done today, the standard GTD advice is to put it in your calendar. But you've stated that some of these tasks have changing urgency. The standard GTD advice is to simply list those by context and not attempt to hard-code their urgency.

If so, that sounds like a huge weakness of GTD. Like most people almost all my tasks have changing urgency. And if, through that process, a task becomes genuinely urgent, then having it lost somewhere in an undifferentiated context list is absolutely hopeless.

I guess I could potentially write any task that became genuinely urgent onto today's calendar page, however I am quite likely to run out of space for to do that on today's calendar page.

To get clear, quite often, particularly if I am on the road, a number of my tasks will start life as as "Do during ASAP during discretionary time" but due to changing circumstances, may suddenly become "Mission-critical, MUST do today".
i.e. Initially there was no specific day during which the task had to be completed, so there was no obvious date to enter it on.
But then external things change and the same task suddenly becomes urgent.

Are you saying that if this happens, the same task should be entered again on my Calendar for today as well?
If so that would mean that I would then have 3 different types of entry on my calendar:
1. Unmovable/external events & appointments
2. Trigger info/Tickler-file type entries
3. "Urgent / do today" type tasks

I am using David Allen's printed calendar on A5. The immediate problem is that there just isn't really enough space in my calendar for this on those more busy/stressy days.

A further problem is that tasks may then become non-urgent again after all (again due to changing external circumstances).
 
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Gardener

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While I wouldn't do this the way that you're doing it, it occurs to me that if you do want to stick with it, you might be able to solve the problem of changing urgency, and the work of scratching out the red ink, by using those little colored Post-It flags instead of drawing the boxes. You could easily add and remove them, and you could use two colors, one for Today and one for Urgent Today. They come in a zillion colors and as narrow as half an inch wide. (A quarter inch might be nicer, but if you have small writing you could use the ones that have a little arrow printed on them, for more precise pointing.)
 

bcmyers2112

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If so, that sounds like a huge weakness of GTD. Like most people almost all my tasks have changing urgency. Any if through that process, a task becomes genuinely urgent, then having it lost somewhere in an undifferentiated context list is absolutely hopeless.

It depends on who you ask. I consider it a strength because it means I don't have to waste time updating my next actions lists when my priority landscape inevitably changes, which it does frequently, sometimes multiple times per day.

There are those who report practicing GTD and using priority codes successfully. But I don't know if any of them are dyslexic. Again, were I you I'd seek out the advice of someone with expertise in this area. But it's your life to live as you choose.

Are you saying that if this happens, the same task should be entered again on my Calendar for today as well?
If so that would mean that I would then have 3 different types of entry on my calendar:
1. Unmovable/external events & appointments
2. Trigger info/Tickler-file type entries
3. "Urgent / do today" type tasks

What I'm saying is that GTD's standard advice is that if something must be done today it goes on your calendar. I'm not sure what you mean by "urgent." If something is high-priority but not time-sensitive, GTD suggests those things should be tracked on next actions lists sorted by context, not priority. If urgent means "time sensitive," I'd suggest somehow tracking those on your calendar. If there's not room, post-it notes might work as has already been suggested.

But again, I question whether GTD is right for you given your stated challenges. That's not a judgment of you and your capabilities, by the way. Everyone is different, and maybe a different organizational system would suit you better. We all need to focus on finding what maximizes our strengths and minimizes our weaknesses.

If you don't mind me asking: why are you so adamant on sticking with GTD? What do you expect to derive from it? That might help us help you.
 

Ship69

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It depends on who you ask. I consider it a strength because it means I don't have to waste time updating my next actions lists when my priority landscape inevitably changes, which it does frequently, sometimes multiple times per day.

There are those who report practicing GTD and using priority codes successfully. But I don't know if any of them are dyslexic. Again, were I you I'd seek out the advice of someone with expertise in this area. But it's your life to live as you choose.



What I'm saying is that GTD's standard advice is that if something must be done today it goes on your calendar. I'm not sure what you mean by "urgent." If something is high-priority but not time-sensitive, GTD suggests those things should be tracked on next actions lists sorted by context, not priority. If urgent means "time sensitive," I'd suggest somehow tracking those on your calendar. If there's not room, post-it notes might work as has already been suggested.

But again, I question whether GTD is right for you given your stated challenges. That's not a judgement of you and your capabilities, by the way. Everyone is different, and maybe a different organizational system would suit you better. We all need to focus on finding what maximizes our strengths and minimizes our weaknesses.

If you don't mind me asking: why are you so adamant on sticking with GTD? What do you expect to derive from it? That might help us help you.

No, urgent is different from important. By urgent I definitely mean time-sensitive. And I also mean sufficiently important as to need to be done soon (e.g. by tomorrow).

Yes, we are all different and I do not expect to apply any system in a pedantic, rigorous manner. I stick to GTD mainly because it has a following and because I have wasted more than enough time learning it. There probably are better systems out there, it's just that I don't know what they are. Either I think there are quite a lot of good aspects to GTD. I find executing the GTD habits hard though and I have the strong suspicion is that this part of my problems with it. Hence my use of paper.

That said, it does sometime feel like a lot of people who use GTD and also those who use the various task management applications are basically "productivity junkies" (i.e. interested in the systems) than being particularly productive people. I mean no offence but which hugely productive, high achieving person has time to show up on forums to discuss their systems?!

If I count the number of hours I have spent reading about GTD theory, listening to Allen's lectures, let alone learning & trying to configure various tools (particularly) MLO it would be appalling. It might even be a couple of man-months, and although I know one should see it as investment in the future, I'd be extremely surprised if I had saved anything like that amount of time in improved efficiency. Personally I only use forums in spurts - times when I have a bit more time.

PS Yes postits and coloured repositionable arrows both sounds like a good idea - thanks.
 

bcmyers2112

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No, urgent is different from important. By urgent I definitely mean time-sensitive. And I also mean sufficiently important as to need to be done soon (e.g. by tomorrow).

I'm assuming that something triggers the recognition that these things have become urgent such as a call from a client, an email, or some other external trigger, correct? Rather than fishing them out of your system, then, I would simply suggest noting them on your calendar using post-its or on a separate sheet of paper. You can cross them off in your NA lists later when you do your next regular review.

That said, it does sometime feel like a lot of people who use GTD and also those who use the various task management applications are basically "productivity junkies" (i.e. interested in the systems) than being particularly productive people. I mean no offence but which hugely productive, high achieving person has time to show up on forums to discuss their systems?!

No offense taken, although I consider myself a relatively productive and high-achieving person (although admittedly that's subjective). I don't think that precludes participation in these forums. I can't be "on" all the time and sharing what I know about GTD as well as learning from others is relaxing for me.

If I count the number of hours I have spent reading about GTD theory, listening to Allen's lectures, let alone learning & trying to configure various tools (particularly) MLO it would be appalling. It might even be a couple of man-months, and although I know one should see it as investment in the future, I'd be extremely surprised if I had saved anything like that amount of time in improved efficiency. Personally I only use forums in spurts - times when I have a bit more time.

I have a feeling you're going to be back again before long with yet another reinvented system. I don't think GTD is the issue, nor is GTD or any other productivity solution the answer. I think you're avoiding something with productivity porn as I once was. That's unfortunate because you only live once and I don't think anyone will ever lay on their deathbed wishing they had spent more time agonizing over productivity systems. It certainly doesn't seem to be something that is making you happy. But I've given you this advice before and I don't get the sense you're receptive to it. So I'll leave you be and simply wish you the best and hope that I'm wrong, and that whatever path you choose brings you what you desire.
 

Ship69

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@bcmyers2112 Thanks. All good points.

In my defence, I have phases when I just get on with it and phases when I have a little more time and the frustrations that have built up over time require the my current system to be tweaked. So, no I am not sitting here wasting my entire life fiddling with 'productivity porn'.

GTD clearly does involve a large number of components and moving parts. In reality no system is perfect, and from what I have heard most people do tweak and adapt GTD to their own requirements.

Nonetheless, the response from certain users often feels like "Heresy! Heresy!" But where certain individual parts aren't working well there is no good reason not to fine-tune them, and it is interesting to hear other people's experiences and suggestions.

For my part I am interested to learn both what GTD official dogma says and also hear from other people who have experimented and listen to the results of said experiments.

Obviously reading difficulties carries it's own issues, and one can't follow everyone's advice in any case. But I do listen and I do take things on board. In fact it is due to my listening to such voices that I am back working on paper. :)
 

Oogiem

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No, what you are describing simply isn't my real world. On a busy day, it is mission-critical that I execute those really high priority tasks. These tasks absolutely MUST be done today.
Then those should be in the calendar.

I deal with hundreds of tasks and don't find it a problem to handle the changing priorities on the fly. I know I am a high reader and you are not but I think you are trying to get a system to handle things that you can really do on your own.
 

Oogiem

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If so, that sounds like a huge weakness of GTD. Like most people almost all my tasks have changing urgency. And if, through that process, a task becomes genuinely urgent, then having it lost somewhere in an undifferentiated context list is absolutely hopeless.
I guess I'm with bcmyers2112. I consider the fact that I can change what I do based on how the priority changes on the fly to be the greatest strength of GTD vs other time management systems.

For example in my world I have maybe 25 tasks right now that are all in the context outside by myself. One of the things not on my list but that I am doing regularly is checking the sheep flock for lambing sheep. You can bet that as soon as a ewe starts lambing that all my other priorities will go out the window and I will be focused on that until she is done.

IMG_5691_small.jpg

When this girl gets going everything else can wait!

We had a dog get injured. We knew that when she comes back we have to build a small pen for her recovery to continue. But we had the opportunity to go get a new working dog on Sunday. So the build small dog run project suddenly became urgent and had to be finished on Saturday. I just knew looking at the lists that was the case and we have our new dog in the run now acclimating.

What you describe, rapidly changing priorities, is not uncommon in any system. But I still see no need to document the priority at all, it takes too long, changes to often and doesn't help me get anything done to try to track the myriad of changing priorities in such detail. I trust my sense of importance or urgency just by looking at my context lists of all the things I have to do.
 

Oogiem

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That said, it does sometime feel like a lot of people who use GTD and also those who use the various task management applications are basically "productivity junkies" (i.e. interested in the systems) than being particularly productive people. I mean no offence but which hugely productive, high achieving person has time to show up on forums to discuss their systems?!
I use forums as a way to communicate with someone other than sheep. It's as much social as learning.

As for productivity, I typically complete 20-25 projects a week. I'm currently running with 260 active projects and over 300 available actions. We've got a running farm, I am a board member on 2 organizations, secretary/registrar for my breed of sheep, manage a brewery, treasurer for another organization, active in my community with the historical society and 2 conservation organizations and also have a number of hobbies including spinning, weaving, scrapbooks and reading that are currently active with some others in temporary hold right now (learning to draw with colored pencils and knitting for example). Sure my house is a mess but we eat good home cooked food and I am living the life I want. I consider that very productive.
 

TesTeq

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I stick to GTD mainly because it has a following and because I have wasted more than enough time learning it.
As a GTD enthusiast I would be very happy if you could implement GTD to suit your needs.
But as an author of the book about decision making (in Polish) I must strongly say that using something just because "you've wasted more than enough time learning it" is wrong. It is the perfect example of the sunk cost fallacy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunk_cost .
Implement basic GTD, do 100 Weekly Reviews and trust your intuition (it may take 2 years to build it).
 

bcmyers2112

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@Ship69: I was thinking not just about the amount of time you've spent in these forums, but also the time and effort you've spent researching and experimenting with myriad list management solutions. I've been down that road myself and it is not only time consuming but mentally draining. FWIW, when I finally decided to just stick with a solution some years ago my productivity and peace of mind both soared. (I'm being forced to consider leaving that solution due to serious quality issues, although I'm hoping I won't have to.)

I agree with @TesTeq that if something isn't working, it's not wise to stick with it simply because you've spent a lot of time on it. I'm not saying give up on anything that doesn't bring instant gratification; but if you're not seeing some gradual progress at the very least, it's possible GTD may not be right for you.

I agree with you that on occasion some of us in these forums can be overly dogmatic about GTD. I've fallen into that trap myself, although I think less so recently. On the other hand, when I echo DA's advice about things like keeping your system simple I speak from direct experience. I didn't decide that his advice was correct and then ignore evidence to the contrary; I tested it out and learned first-hand that if you're going to practice GTD you want to keep your system as simple as possible.

I offer my advice not because I want you to feel bad, but because I've been where you are and I'd like to do whatever I can to help you succeed.
 

Ship69

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As a GTD enthusiast I would be very happy if you could implement GTD to suit your needs.
But as an author of the book about decision making (in Polish) I must strongly say that using something just because "you've wasted more than enough time learning it" is wrong. It is the perfect example of the sunk cost fallacy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunk_cost .
Implement basic GTD, do 100 Weekly Reviews and trust your intuition (it may take 2 years to build it).

There are distinct limits to how much time I am either willing or able to throw at "Productivity" theory. My take is that GTD is probably good enough for now. But if someone produces evidence that looks compelling that there is something that would suit me better, I wouldn't blink, I'd jump ship.

That said, there are probably lots of small GTD tips that I would take with me into any new system.

I disagree fundamentally that fine-tuning the system is in any way wrong. I am an inventor. I think like an inventor. For better or worse that happens to be who I am. Coming up with new ways of doing things when there is some degree of disatisfaction/friction isn't just easy, it's more or less inevitable. It's just how I think. Yes, clearly a balance must be found between new tweaks and just getting on with it but for me what would take a lot more energy would be to force myself to come up with NO new ways of doing stuff.

So no, I take strong issue with GTD fundamentalism. I am keen to know what the "correct" GTD theory says, but I also am bound to go through phases of trying new tweaks, sometimes large one.

Personally I think one area that GTD is particularly weak is the use of colour.

No, I have no problem with marking those few seriously important things as being seriously important. I just make sure that there aren't too many of them and it's fine. It also helps if there is an easy way to make them "no longer seriously important". It takes me about 1 second to mark a task as being urgent and about the same to mark it as no longer urgent.
The way I currently do this is with colour that is erasable. I am using Pilot Frixion multipen, which clips inside the spin of my notebook. With the same pen I just change colour and make a small mark. It works great. And yes, I'm extremely glad I tried the experiment, thank you :)
 

TesTeq

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So no, I take strong issue with GTD fundamentalism. I am keen to know what the "correct" GTD theory says, but I also am bound to go through phases of trying new tweaks, sometimes large one.
Personal tweaks are great as long as you're capturing stuff, processing and organizing it using lists that you review weekly. And - the most important - as long as you're doing actions that are on these lists. ;-)
Personally I think one area that GTD is particularly weak is the use of colour.
I must agree. It seems that @DavidAllen has forgotten to mention about colors in his GTD book. ;-)
 

devon.marie

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The way I currently do this is with colour that is erasable. I am using Pilot Frixion multipen, which clips inside the spin of my notebook. With the same pen I just change colour and make a small mark. It works great. And yes, I'm extremely glad I tried the experiment, thank you :)

I came here to suggest the Frixion - great pens. Just don't leave your system in a hot car or you'll lose it all. You can stick it in a freezer to gain it back, but then you get everything you erased back. Wanted to post a quick heads-up on this as (at least in the US) we're heading into the hotter summer months :)
 
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